The Story Behind The Story

When I was younger, I would only read classic novels, and therefore viewed authors as dead and gone, and writing as a sacred art that only few could become skilled at. However, as of the end of last summer, I have taken up reading more modern novels, and have thus become addicted to creating my own stories.

As this new side to me emerged, I watched as other interests of mine fell away. I had wanted to be a veterinarian all through my childhood, and had loved animals, but now I found that loved the written word more. I liked the change, but I also hated it. I liked what I had become, but I wasn't able to recognize myself.

However, this is only the background information.

I started to write Shifters at the end of last summer, but I actually started to write it in February of this year. How is this so?

At the end of last summer, I had started to write a ghost story. Yes, a ghost story. The main character was Lily Clark. But it never seemed to go anywhere. None of my ideas worked.

But on one day during the following February, an idea came to me so suddenly that I hardly had time to blink. That idea was Shifters.

I would like to be able to say that my original idea changed as I thought the plot through during various pre-writing stages, but in truth after that one day in February I had the whole story figured out. While new characters and ideas might have occurred to me along the way, I never experienced writers block. It seemed as if the ideas had simply been dropped into my head.

So what does the background information I gave before have anything to do with this?

As I grew and changed, I had begun to feel lost. Like I said, I didn't feel as if I even knew myself anymore. But Shifters changed that. In Shifters, I was able to bring my two selves together, my old-fashioned, animal loving side as well as my modern, word loving side.

And whenever the writing gets to be too much, I simply remember this, and I write on.

-Annabelle